Ivydale Primary School

Here at Ivydale we work hard to ensure that all children are given every opportunity to become successful, confident and happy learners so that they will look back on their years at the school with pride and a sense of achievement, wherever their talents lie.

Our primary focus in the coming months is to raise the standards of all our children whilst continuing to provide a broad, stimulating and engaging curriculum for everyone in our school.

Ivydale is one of the best kept secrets in Southwark – it is exciting, creative and dynamic and is very much at the heart of the local community. Our nursery even has chickens! Through art, music, sport and community events, the school takes every opportunity to continue a tradition of family and neighbourhood participation.

We work in partnership with our parents and we encourage them to be fully involved in their child’s education. We value parental involvement and our community is important to our school. We are very proud to have our own Children’s Centre which provides services, support and activities for families in the local community.

At Ivydale Primary School and Children's Centre we aim to foster: "A Love of Learning for Life" and we do this by:

• Inspiring all children to have high aspirations and to achieve their best
• Encouraging enthusiastic, thoughtful and respectful learners
• Providing a creative, caring and safe environment in partnership with the whole school community

At Ivydale we are proud of our dynamic, broad and creative curriculum. We follow our own curriculum, the Ivydale Creative Curriculum, which we have designed and written to fit the needs of our children and to make the most of our local environment. Our curriculum conforms to the new National Curriculum which came into force in September 2014.

Our curriculum is organised into the following areas: Literacy (English), Maths, Science and Technology (Science, Design Technology, Computing), Humanities and MFL (Geography, History, Languages, RE), Creativity (Art & Design, Music), Health and Wellbeing (PE, PSHE) and EYFS (the Early Years Foundation Stage).

The Ivydale Road Elementary School opened in 1888 in temporary iron buildings near the current site with 53 children, though this number more than doubled in size within four weeks. Although one school, it comprised two departments, each with its own headteacher: one for boys and one for girls and infants. Almost immediately the buildings proved too small and this, combined with the national introduction of free schooling in 1891, led to the construction of a new building that was finished the same year.

In 1913 the school split into three departments, each with its own headteacher: one for boys, one for girls and one for infants. Children attended school from five to fourteen, although it is likely that the "babies class" on the attic floor included children below the age of five. This continued until 1939 when the school was reorganised into infant, junior and senior departments, again each with their own headteacher. However this change was short lived. Later that same year in September 1939 on the outbreak of the Second World War, Ivydale was closed and the children were evacuated. The school was opened again in 1942.